A conventional pogo stick utilizes a coil spring within a hollow tube housing to create an upward force when compressed by a user to propel the user in an upward direction. In order to get more lift than can be provided with a coil spring and without increasing the weight of the pogo stick itself, it has been recognized in the art that an air filled cylinder/piston arrangement can produce increased propulsion or lift for the same length of stroke. Some have gone so far as incorporating engine power in order to increase lift and provide a powered jumping stick.
Various attempts have been made in the art to provide pneumatic pogo sticks. One example of an air-type pogo stick includes a cylinder to which foot-boards are attached in a body. The cylinder has a valve through which a user can regulate the space within the cylinder. The pogo stick is simultaneously worked by both pressure power and vacuum power created in the upper and lower part of the piston in the cylinder respectively when exerted by an outside force. Such a pogo stick, however, has many shortcomings in both construction and functionality and fails to address many of the problems encountered when attempting to use compressed air as a spring.
Pogo stick users have creatively learned to do pogo stick tricks while they are propelled upward. Extreme tricks are common now in many official sports, such as snowboarding, skateboarding, and extreme motorsports, and many users have implemented extreme tricks on pogo sticks. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a pneumatic pogo stick that allows for relatively smooth jumping and landing while allowing the user to obtain greater height to have more hang-time for more creative and complicated tricks.
However, the jumping and landing characteristics of a pogo stick may greatly affect the overall usability, flexibility, and safety of the pogo stick. For example, the different tricks performed by a user may involve varying degrees of height and hang-time. Certain complex tricks may require greater height, while simpler, repetitive tricks may best be performed with reduced height. As another example, the pogo stick may be used for transportation purposes over a variety of environments. Certain environments may require greater height and hang-time (e.g., there is an obstacle which needs to be jumped over), while other environments may best be traversed with reduced height or smoother jumping/landing. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a pneumatic pogo stick with variable jumping and/or landing characteristics, including the height of the jump obtainable by a user, such that the user could tailor the use of the pogo stick for specific scenarios (e.g., executing a specific trick or traversing a specific type of environment). It would be especially advantageous if the pneumatic pogo stick allowed for the user to dynamically change those jumping and landing characteristics during use, such that the user could seamlessly use the pogo stick in a variety of scenarios that arise.
Conventional pogo sticks utilizing a coil spring may be taken apart and reassembled by a user for transportation and storage. In comparison, the cylinder of pneumatic pogo sticks is generally designed to trap the air that provides spring-like functionality when compressed. This may make it difficult or impractical for a user to take apart and reassemble some pneumatic pogo sticks without affecting the functionality of the cylinder. As a result, such pneumatic pogo sticks may have problems associated with transportation and storage that do not exist for conventional pogo sticks. Thus, it would also be advantageous to provide a pneumatic pogo stick that is easily transported and stored.